A recent Gallup Poll of 1529 adults done earlier this month shows that the slow death of people’s trust in traditional news outlets like the newspaper and TV took yet another major hit. This comes only a few months after a report from Edelman which shows that people’s trust in the results from search engines and other reputable online sites is up dramatically. While this might not seem like a surprise to most, it is significant in that people are continuing to move toward online sources for news and other information.
This mass exodus from print and television is undoubtedly one of the driving factors which is bringing more and more advertising dollars to web based platforms. This is obviously good news for marketers who will have the opportunity to increase their profits from a variety of sources. While these specific studies were targeted towards news companies, we can see that the same is happening with entertainment television as well with people streaming entertainment right on their computers or mobile devices.
Another possible benefit of people moving from traditional media to online sources is that rather than having just a handful sources producing the news and entertainment, it can be spread out over thousands or even millions of individuals and businesses. The world is changing how they want to access and enjoy information and the internet is the ideal place to provide it for them.
Whether or not the traditional media sources will be able to turn their troubles around and retain a piece of the business has yet to be seen. It seems, however, that they are losing trust and readers across virtually all age groups, political spectrums and other categories so if they are going to make the necessary changes to retain any sort of business they need to do it quickly.
Are you attempting to cash in on this failing business area? Do you have any news based websites or services? If not, it might be a good time to start a new project!
The Gallup Poll can be found HERE and the study from Edelman can be found HERE.
